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LDP-Komei block suffers historic setback; JCP gains 3 seats

In the House of Councilors election held on July 29, the Japanese Communist Party received 7.48 percent of the votes cast and gained three seats in the proportional representation election. JCP Incumbents Inoue Satoshi and Kami Tomoko were reelected, and Yamashita Yoshiki made a comeback.

The ruling coalition lost a large number of seats and has become a minority in the House of Councilors.

The LDP gained only 37 seats, 27 less seats than its pre-election strength, suffering from a crushing defeat, the second major defeat in its history after the Uno Cabinet that gained only 36 seats in the 1989 House of Councilors election.

The Komei Party which lost its seats in three electoral districts gained nine seats.

The Democratic Party of Japan won 60, largely exceeding the 32 seats it had before the election. The number of DPJ seats in the House of Councilors grew to 109, and it became the leading party in the House.

In the proportional representation election, the JCP obtained 4,407,937 votes, about 45,000 up from the previous Upper House proportional representation election in 2004 and about 79,000 up from the 2001 election.

The JCP gained no seats in the electoral district election. It received 5,164,572 votes (8.7 percent of the votes) in total, about 360,000 down from the 2004 Upper House electoral district election. The JCP, however, obtained more votes than in the previous election in the Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto constituencies where it made strenuous efforts to win seats.

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